Former Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur has come down heavily on the four senior Supreme Court judges who had conducted a press conference earlier this year to publicly attack Chief Justice Dipak Misra for his administration of the court.
Speaking on the topic of “Independence of Judiciary” during an event organized by a Delhi-based NGO, Thakur said the judges should not have held such a press conference and their grievances should have been handled internally away from public gaze.
The former Chief Justice said that an appeal to the people was not what was required to be made by the four apex court judges, as the issues that sought to be addressed through that press conference should have been resolved internally with mutual discussions with Dipak Misra.
“An appeal to the nation is not what would have helped the judges. I firmly believe that judges need not look for outside help for resolving their institutional problems. Judges have to look within and not outside for guidance,” said Thakur, adding that the press conference was a “disturbing” event.
He further said people trust judges for wisdom and they would be happy if judges use their wisdom to solve their own problems as well. Judges must rise above any individual prejudices they possess and think the interest of the institution of the Supreme Court.
Thakur’s statements relate to the January 19 presser held by four senior-most Supreme Court judges, involving Justices Chelmeswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Joseph Kurien, at the residence of Chelameswar, who retired just this week. They had alleged that Chief Justice Dipak Misra had been assigning certain kinds of cases to selected judges and their grievances with respect to certain issues were not being addressed.